Missouri State Fair

4 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 MI SSOUR I STATE FA I R Spanning 396 acres, the Missouri State Fair has secured funding from the state of Missouri to purchase another 200 acres, for future expansion. Of the 100 buildings on the grounds, 15 of them are on the state historical register, some dating back to the fair’s earliest days. “We’ve got buildings out here on the grounds that were built in 1901. Our Coliseum was built in 1906. We have one street with a row of the old original buildings, and all kinds of architecture mixed in from different eras,” describes Wolfe. As one of the premier campgrounds in the Midwest, the fairgrounds are also home to almost 2000 full hookup campsites, with plans to add up to 600 more as part of the expansion. There is also a plan to build a $30 million multi- use arena with a focus on equine events. Wolfe shares, “When it’s all said and done, we’ll be a little over 2400 full hookup, 50-amp campsites, which is pretty unique for facilities like this. We’ve got some things coming up through money that came through the State’s budget this year. We’re really excited about it.” The Missouri State Fair runs for 11 days in August, however, the fairgrounds themselves are busy throughout the year, with some days having six to eight events. For the purposes of tracking, each event is referred to as one event day. The grounds host an average of 460 event days per year, excluding the 11 days of the State Fair. Director of Marketing Kari Mergen reports, “Our Coliseum, which is where we do a lot of our livestock and horse events, is booked pretty much every weekend in the summer. So, it’s catch-22 to continue marketing to get new events here, but also trying to let the people that have been here for years return when they want to come back. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to grow that livestock side with some of these facilities that we’re going to build, to get bigger and more, livestock shows.” The fairgrounds are also busy throughout the year with weddings, family reunions, and other